Torn
by Alex James Rook
Summary: A Flamedramon and a Renamon are the sole digital defenders of Lawrence, Florida.  They live pretty easy lives and were taking it pretty easy until disaster happens.  The mask disappears and the truth unveils.


MAN! It's been forever since I posted on here. But hopefully, it will be worth it. I'm currently working on 5 different stories and have spent the better part of 4 weeks working on just this one chapter. Rough draft 2 wound up being pretty good so I decided to stick with it. This is currently looking to be a 3 chapter story so I should actually manage to complete it. This is actually a little...well, I don't wanna spoil to much...

* * *

><p><strong>Day 551:<strong>

A grey mist had clouded over an already dark area of Lawrence, Florida. There was something strange about it, but the 2 people it enclosed failed to notice. A young woman was attempting to get home while a man behind her gave chase. To him, the mist would only make this easier. The same substance made Rachel nervous, so she hurried forward.

Rachel was only 14, and knew she shouldn't be walking around this late at night, but her mother had refuse to pick her up from work, leaving her to make a hour long walk home. She turned to see the strange man was still following her footsteps and quickened her pace yet again. He only seemed to be catching up even faster. Seeing a side passage she decided to duck into it really quick and, of course, he followed, or attempted to.

He didn't even make it into the alley before he saw a big black bag swing around. the corner. he had no time to react before he found himself lying on the ground, clutching his face from the pain. Rachel came out from around the corner holding the bag down and yelling at him for being a pervert and a pedophile. She started to walk off but he wasn't one to give up on his prey.

As he watched the girl began to walk off, he swung his leg a bit and hooked his foot around hers. She only stumbled a bit but it had pissed her off. She thought that he wasn't very tough so she started to yell at him again. When he started getting up, she pulled her bag back to take another swing. He was ready for that this time, though.

He ducked underneath the bag, turning it into nothing but a big weigh that she refused to let go off. Rachel was right that he wasn't as strong as the average man but he was certainly stronger than a 14-year old girl. He slammed her against the wall behind her, giving her a mild concussion before disarming her and tossing her into the alley.

Rachel quickly recovered and tried to punch him in the face, but he caught her fist and delivered his own blow to her chest. As she doubled over from the hit, he took hold of both hand and moved them around to her back. Then held them behind her with one hand and began to under button his pants with the other, cursing her for putting up a struggle in the first place. He soon found himself back on the ground, clutching his face again.

"What the fuck?" He screamed as writhed on the ground. As he began to move his hands from his face, a large, 3 fingered hand wrap around his throat and hoist him into the air. He grabbed hold of the hand and tried to lift his body up to relieve the strain on his throat.

Supporting him was a large being that appeared to be some mixture between a human and a fox. Fur covered it's whole body, coating it in a blanket of yellow and white. Purple eyes with a black sclera peered at him with a look fiercer than anything he had seen before. With the fur serving as a sufficient outfit, the only other thing it wore was a pair of deep, purple arm guards, each containing a typical yin yang symbol. "It would be wise for you to change you ways before I see you again."

With that statement, the Renamon dropped him to the ground. He rubbed his neck with a look of fear before scrambling to get up and run away. It watched to make sure it was long gone before finally turning to face the human it had saved. There was a moment of silence as both just stared at the other, but only for a moment.

"There it is!" a loud voice declared. Both of them looked above and found 2 more figures that had just appeared.

"It's about to attack! Save her!" The second figure declared.

The first figure was a another creature that appeared to only be half human, but the other half was draconic in nature. Blue scales coated it's body and a long tail extend to just brush the surface it stood on. It wore a helmet, a breastplate, a pair of knee guards, and a some boots, all with a flame-like design and long claws extending from the boots.

Beside him was a small boy of about 8 years who had been piggy-backing till right when they got there. A light breeze tossed his long brown hair in front of his face but he didn't seem to notice. What they could see of his skin seemed to be bruised and scarred from many injuries. He stood solemnly and stared down at the girl and Renamon as his partner jumped to make a quick decent from the building.

It wasn't hard to dodge the attack, the distance he had to fall gave plenty of time to move out of his obvious path of action. Even with his target moved, he still put his added his fist to his landing. His damage wasn't widespread: just a small crack that seemed to carry its crooked path across the hole that now consumed his hand. Renamon barely had time to witness the impact before he withdrew his hand and dashed forward for the next attack.

Renamon couldn't understand how this Flamedramon was moving as fast as it was; Renamon were known for being fast but Flamedramon were not in the least but he was easily keeping up. Not only was he fast but he had created a series of attacks that left little room for avoidance. She had no intention of harming him but found she had far underestimated what he was capable of and was now left with a constant defense, made more difficult when his body became covered in fire, reducing her ability to block attacks. The combat only lasted a couple seconds, but she felt like she had just come out of a war.

"Stop fighting!" Rachel said when the shock of the digimon finally wore off. "It wasn't about to attack me, it just saved me!" Flamedramon brought itself to a sudden stop and Renamon took the opportunity to jump away to safety. The fire that had consumed his body extinguished as he looked back over his shoulder.

"Really?" Flamedramon asked. "What happened?"

"This crazy pervert had been following me and…"

"Say no more, you have innocent ears above," Flamedramon interrupted. He then turned back to the other digimon and stated "For future notice, I don't recommend harming people. There's a thing called the government here and they tend to not care what the human does before he gets hit. Let me get my tamer down from up there and we'll welcome to your new home. I'm assuming she is your new partner, right?"

**Day 631**

"There you are!" Renamon exclaimed. It had been a couple of months since she had last seen him, losing his training almost as quickly has he had begun to provide it. "It was strange, you left and another digimon and tamer showed up to make up for you being gone."

"Hmm, so they really do show up…" Flamedramon said as an intrigued look consumed his face.

"You mean they've showed up before?" Renamon asked confused.

Flamedramon looked up, as if he just remembered he was talking with her. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I had to disappear a lot of times when I first got here. When I'd return, they'd make comments about the strange duo. Tell me, I've heard they're not too good at it but they are capable of handling they're job."

"They're capable alright. Definitely not as capable as you. You can take on ultimates without even using those gauntlets the rest of your kind wear while they had to digivolve just to fight a rabid Greymon." Flamedramon nodded in acknowledge but he seemed to just be staring off into the distance. "Why don't you wear those gauntlets, if I may ask?"

Flamedramon did the same sudden head movement as earlier and seemed to reflect over her question for a moment. He spent more time trying to figure out what he had asked than actually figuring out his answer. "I…had caused a lot of damage with them before. I don't want it to happen again so I tossed them somewhere and forgot about them."

"Are you alright?" Renamon looked as she examined him about to zone out again. "You seem very distracted."

"Yes, I'm fine!" He quickly responded. "It's just…I haven't seen my kid in a long time. Do you happen to know the time?"

"Not exactly…" Renamon started as she looked around for some publicly exposed clock. "It's almost 3:45, I'm sure. I was just waiting for my "kid" to get out of school."

"I thought so. You haven't noticed anything…different about him. Have you?"

Renamon looked confused for a second before giving the question some thought. "I don't think I've seen him at all since you left." After receiving his answer, Flamedramon seemed to lose all track of reality again. "It seems like I only see him when he's with you."

"I just wish I could always be with him. Life for humans can be rough sometimes. When I first came here, he was being beaten. I don't want that to happen to him anymore and I can almost feel it happening to him every time we're apart." Flamedramon shook a tear from his eyes as he reached within his chest armor and withdrew a pack of cigarettes. "You mind?" Renamon silently shook her head and he quickly removed an lit one is a fluid movement.

"I had about the same experience. You heard her tell you she was about to get raped but her mother wasn't the nicest person either." Flamedramon gave Renamon a curious look, showing his first real interest in the story. "She's changed now and wasn't physically abusive, but until Rachel started get $2000 dollar a month just because I'm her partner, she completely ignored her. I still don't think she's really nice, but she's convinced Rachel that the only reason she was mean was because they were poor and she wanted her to learn to be successful."

"Money does have a way of changing how a person acts," Flamedramon declared with a stung pull on his smoke. "For better or for worse."

**Day 707**

Kokatorimon had been putting up a fierce battle, flinging fiery bursts of petrifying might all in rapid succession. The giant chicken didn't even have to move much as he kept the flitting creatures at bay, fast enough to dodge his attacks but only so long as they stayed their distance. Inside, he smiled knowing victory would soon be his.

The local digimon of Lawrence, Florida had a different opinion though. "I haven't gotten this much of a work out since my tamer got _DDR_ for the Wii," Renamon shouted, knowing their opponent couldn't hear them over his own screeches. She would move at just the moment that she could feel the heat from the blast as it almost brushed her yellow fur. The half-fox vixen then moved aside and waited for the dumb bird to make its next attack.

"Work-out? I've seen you preform "Pluto the First" on expert (the hardest song in the game according the internet) without breaking a sweat!" Flamedramon replied. The blue-scaled draconic being didn't allow as much distance between him and Kokatorimon's attacks as his ally. The closest it came was when he had gotten distracted earlier in the fight, but he made it look like his orange armor was the Reason for his survival.

"And you think this is?" Renamon questioned as she easily avoided another blast.

"Can we finish the fight?" Michael asked. He had been a tamer for almost 2 years and had many scars and bruises on him. "I don't want to keep daddy waiting."

"Don't worry, I'm sure they're getting tired of playing with him by now," Rachel stated, heavily emphasizing the latter half of her statement. She was about 16 but had only been a tamer for about 6 months. Flamedramon was an experience fighter at that point and with the two of them defending the city instead of just Flamedramon, she had been kept safely out of harm's way till this point.

"Do you want to finish him or shall I?" Renamon asked her ally.

"Well, I already made the first strike, so I'll let you take care of it," Flamedramon stated has he took an additional jump back.

"Friendly fire doesn't count for first strike." Renamon stated with a cheerful smile.

"Fine, I'll do it!" Flamedramon stated as he dashed forward. Kokatorimon was alarmed with his sudden rush as he tried to hit him with another Stun Fire Shot. Flamedramon easily slide underneath the fireball and delivered a right hook straight into Kokatorimon's chest as he returned to his feet. As the digital chicken double over from the attack, Flamedramon followed his maneuver with an uppercut, catching it right under its large beak, and then adding a round house kick to send it rolling back with strength disproportionate to his size.

While Kokatorimon was stunned behind its comprehension, Flamedramon summoned an aura of fire around himself. The wild digimon recovered with only enough time to gasp in awe as Flamedramon rushed forward with its Fire Rocket attack and delivered the final blow. Flamedramon remembered times when fights were harder than this but those times were over long before Renamon joined his one man army.

"Why did you hit Renamon?" Michael asked.

"Well, I…You see…" Flamedramon stumbled for the right words to explain his actions.

Rachel decided she'd say what Flamedramon was trying to hide from Michael. "It was a love slap. Sometimes adults do that to those they love. My parents used to do it all the the time."

"But I thought you said…" Michael said as he pointed at Flamedramon with a confused expression.

"I'll explain later," Flamedramon quickly cut in.

**Day 708**

Flamedramon was busy at his part time job working at a local Wendy's restaurant. He used to work in the back but customers often worried he would set fire to the grease so he started working the registers instead. The day had been very busy with a lunch rush that lasted much longer than normal. Flamedramon checked on all the customer eating in the lobby. With all of them taken care of, he grabbed a broom and went after some of the messier spots.

"You're doing a great job, Flame," the working manager said as he came over to talk to him and double check his work. "Only, I think you need to remember that our menu board can be confusing to someone who doesn't visit here often."

"Those that come often would probably find it easier if you could get the guys in charge to stop changing the menu items and prices," Flamedramon quietly commented as he focused on his work. "I'll try to work on it if you remember to get me that break at 3:30 so I can go get my tamer from school."

"Oh, he gets out at 3:30?" the manager asked as if he didn't already know. "I'm sorry, it's already 3:45; I'll grab a register and get you on break immediately." He reassured his employee who already looked like he was about to dash.

"Please hurry," Flamedramon requested. "I don't like it when he goes home alone."

Flamedramon kicked a rock sending it skittering. He knew that Michael had gotten on a bus but had hoped that he would be wrong. It wasn't a great distance between the school and his work so he decided he'd take his time heading back to relax. He began to reach under the armor plate on his chest.

"Everything alright?" a sudden voice called, startling him for a moment. He quickly relaxed as he found Renamon had snuck up on him again.

"Yeah," Flamedramon replied. "I usually pick up my partner during my break but the GM held me for too long again. You mind?"

"Go ahead, though I wish you wouldn't."

"It just keeps helps me calm down," Flamedramon said as he continued to retrieve his hidden stash of cigarettes. "Besides, you know they don't have the same side effects on digimon as they do on humans," he stated as he create a small flame to get him started.

"I know, but I don't believe that makes you a good role model for Michael."

"I keep 2 rules: don't smoke in front of him, and don't leave him just so I can."

They both continued to walk silently for a while. a car passed by catching Renamon's interest but Flamedramon just kept staring straight ahead. "Okay, something's wrong. It's almost like you're barely here."

"It's nothing I swear."

"Wait a second…You just got another one of those special missions, didn't you?"

Flamedramon wasn't sure how to react at first. He stopped walking and looked at Renamon confused for a few seconds. "What?"

"You always get like this right before you go on one of those special government missions that the government sends you to the digital world to do. I guess you just miss your partner because they take him into protective custody during it," Renamon stated as if he should already know. It took a while for Flamedramon to realize what she was talking about.

"Are you talking about when the temps show up? Is that what they tell you?"

**Day 715**

Myotismon arrived through a tear in the metaphysical space between the world of digimon and that of man. An opponent of this stature usually required both of the local guardians fighting till one of them finally built up enough energy to Digivolve. For a short while though, Renamon found herself fighting alone though. The next digimon to arrive was familiar but not Flamedramon.

"Sorry about arriving late!" the new tamer yelled as she and her partner ran to the scene. Kotemon dashed further into the battle but she remained next to the other partner on the sidelines. She was referred to as a temporary trainer. It wasn't that her status as trainer was temporary but her location depended on where she and her partner were needed. "The moving crew got all the boxes mixed up so it's taking a long time to unpack everything."

"I thought you stayed at hotels when you had to go away from home." Rachel stated as she watched their digimon continue to engage. Like with Kokatorimon, the fight consisted mostly of their digimon dodging and blocking but it wasn't as lighthearted.

"Usually I do but when I need to stay in a particular location, they buy us new or better house and move the whole family," the temp responded.

Rachel opened her mouth to speak but stopped as a card appeared in her hand. "That's faster than usual," she muttered as she took the bright red card and slide it through her digivice. Instantly a digital cocoon surrounded her partner. "Renamon digivolve to Taomon," the digimon declared as her body changed into that of her ultimate form.

Myotismon summoned a swarm of bats and sent them after the newly evolved digimon. He smiled darkly as his little pets surrounded his opponent but he found that a barrier created by Taomon kept them at bay. As the bats scattered to return to their master, another swarm flew from Taomon's sleeve. Myotismon had no such defense and the mass of paper talismans gave no room to avoid it.

With Myotismon vanquished, Taomon relinquished the energy that allowed her to maintain her new form and returned to being Renamon. "Why are you going to be staying this time?"

"Is that why you were going so fast?" Rachel asked. "You were worried about your precious little flamedramon," She added in an almost mocking way. She was confused by the fact that Renamon didn't even seem to hear her.

The Temp didn't respond immediately. "You see, the mission he's on is very dangerous…" the temp started to say but Kotemon cut in.

"You shouldn't lie. No matter what the court rules, he won't be coming back here again."

"What?" Rachel asked confused as the temp stared at her partner in shock.

"But…It's not fair. I don't think he did it and I don't want him to look bad."

"What happened?" Renamon begged, desiring to know what happened.

"Flamedramon is accused of killing his tamer and the mother and assaulting the father with his special attacks," Kotemon stated plainly. "He's currently being held in a government database until the a court is ready to see his case."

The tamer again tried to defend Flamedramon, saying that he would never do something like that but Renamon was far away before she could utter more than 2 words.

* * *

><p>I reply to all comments and allow animosity, so feel free to ask any questions though I may keep my answers vague. As of the moment, I will answer nothing on what really went down with Michael's family (but that will be revealed in chapter 2 or at least made a little clearer), but feel free to ask any other questions.<p> 


End file.
